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Valve/Tube Reliability (That Old Chestnut)

Posted by garyjac (P) on August 5, 2014 at 04:21:44

I was reading the story of Colossus, the first electronic computer which was used to decode Enigma, Tunny and Sturgeon codes during the second war. I came across a passage by Tommy Flowers the principal engineer in which he comments that "once we weeded out the odd misbehaving valve the machines ran without problems."

Heh, heh...Here's the good part...they were turned on in 1942 and turned off in 1944 and ran 24/7 for all that time at Bletchley Park. Goes to show I guess, that the "old valve" is pretty reliable. It's turning it on and off that creates thermal shock and therefore a few probs.

Regards,
Gary Jacobson

P.S. Colossus was in operation two year before ENIAC.

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